Western Railroad Discussion > Severe MT hi-line weather detours

Winter weather of high winds, possible heavy snow and cold temperatures will bring detours of BNSF eastbound stacks and intermodal trains over MRL through the weekend. Imagine the pickle BNSF would be in if BN had actually severed the line west of Trout Creek.

Interesting...will that gum up MRL, would they risk those double empty trains? Would the stack train DPU's be enough for the grades?

The heavy wet snow is just getting started along the I-90 corridor. Quite a number of highway sideoffs west of the continental divide. This will continue for 4 days and there will be some rain mixed in. It will be far worse east of here all the way to the east coast.

Had fun just outside of Anaconda this afternoon road was there and then it disappeared

And the techies think autonomous cars will be able to handle roads in weather like this!  NO WAY.  Pipe dream fueled by GOOGLE and others...

I don't see anything in the forecast that would count as extreme along the hi-line.  A foot of snow on the pass, less elsewhere, winds to 40 mph, nothing more than winter weather advisories issued.

Just going by what is from the local TV weather and what is posted to MRL crews about detours.

I wonder if this is an experiment toward more directional running across MT.  Can the MRL accommodate double stacks?  How much longer is the routing, time-wise, for a Z or Q train?  Will they run through Bismarck and MSP or down through Omaha?

dendroica Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>  How much longer is
> the routing, time-wise, for a Z or Q train?  Will
> they run through Bismarck and MSP or down through
> Omaha?

One night, 103 (HNTWSEA) derailed a couple of cars around Bainville. 3 and 13 (ZCHCSEA, ZCHCPTL) were closing fast. An intrepid commander in the control center looked at a map and cried detour! They made a left turn at Snowden and headed for Glendive. A while later, with the hottest trains on the railroad making their way to Glendive, a car foremen reported from Bainville - the derailed cars are back on the railroad, set out, and 103 is blasting off.

3 and 13 went by Sandpoint right on time. Nope, not THAT 3 and 13, the ones that left Chicago the next day.

THAT 3 and 13 passed Sandpoint six hours behind them. only a day and six hours late.

(As one B&O control center manager told me in questioning the way I made a power move in Chicago, It CAN'T take that long. It's only two inches on the map.)

TAW